Extraction of Essential Oil from Spearmint (Mentha spicata var. Viridis L.)

Abstract

Abstract: The Essential oils were leached from leaves, flowers, and stems by solvent extraction, hydro distillation, and steam distillation for essential oil content and the oil analyzed for composition. While the yield of essential oil was consistently higher from steam distillation than hydro distillation, and similar compounds were recovered from both hydro distillation and steam distillation .Though the relative concentrations of the major constituents were similar by both methods, the absolute amounts were higher with steam distillation . No significant differences were observed in essential oil yield and relative concentration of major constituents using fresh or dry samples and using samples from 75 g to 10 g of dry plant tissue. While minor differences between hydro distillation and steam distillation is not accessible. In this study steam distillation, solvent extraction with Petroleum ether and Hexane were investigated . The effect of hydro distillation ,steam distillation and solvent extraction of spearmint oil content and physicochemical properties were studied .Spearmint samples were leached under different solvents Petroleum ether and Hexane the results were as follows: Petroleum ether extract 2.685 g ,Hexane extract 2.81 g . Analysis of Essential oil was done in order to evaluate the essential Oil qualitatively and quantitatively. The major components were: Carvomenthone 4.47%, myrcene 4.49%, piperitone 5.24% , limonene 19.99% and carvone 42.26% of the total component .Physico-chemical properties of the extracted oil were determined according to the British Standards Institute ( BSI) . Results were as follows : Acid value 1.96 mg, Peroxide value 0.025 mg, Refractive index at 30°C 1.495 and specific gravity was 0.902 at room temperature .